Richard E. Grant has been cast in the upcoming 2012 Doctor Who Christmas special. The news came from a tweet from Doctor Who Magazine today. It's interesting to see an official-unofficial past Doctor actor return to the series. You may recall that Richard E. Grant was the original 9th Doctor in the Scream of the Shalka, a story written by Paul Cornell. This animated adventure was produced prior to the television series being relaunched in 2005. We reviewed Scream of the Shalka not too long ago in Doctor Who: Podshock 267. In it, we discussed Richard E. Grant's portrayal of the Doctor and how Scream was the forerunner of Rose.

David Walliams announced on BBC Radio 2's Breakfast Show that he is to have a part in Doctor Who in the upcoming series. All that he's willing to reveal is that he's an alien and shooting starts soon. David is better known for his character comedies "Little Britain" and most recently "Come Fly with Me" which was being shot at Stansted Airport in September as I was visiting the UK. In which he stars with comedy partner Mat Lucas. David is also know to Who fans from sketches he did with Mark Gattis for Comic Relief (UK) in 1999, which ended up as extras in "The Beginnings" boxed set and is well worth a watch. The YouTube clip is below for your perusal.

The date was 23 April 2009. The Telegraph runs the following story about Gillian Anderson being cast as The Rani in Doctor Who (see link and quote below). Since that time we have seen a year of specials starring David Tennant and a whole new series starring Matt Smith. Where's Gillian Anderson? We are still waiting...

He is playing the part of a curator of an exhibition of Vincent van Gogh. It is episode 10 in Series 31, written by Richard Curtis (The Black Adder, Mr. Bean).

Digital Spy reports that a 'set insider' told them, "It was a real coup to get Bill Nighy in Doctor Who, especially in Richard Curtis's amazing episode. Bill plays a van Gogh expert with some similar fashion choices to The Doctor himself."

It is said that this story is to take place in 19th century France as well as present day.

Casting news coming from The Sun reports that Nigel Havers is set to appear in two episodes of the upcoming series 3 of The Sarah Jane Adventures. The 59 year old actor is reported to play a romantic interest to Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen) in the series scheduled to return this September.

An anonymous source has provided io9 an image which appears to be a video still grab (as the image appears to be interlaced).

We will avoid the spoiler information here. It does confirm at least one casting rumour we have reported on recently in Doctor Who: Podshock. It also confirms another casting/character rumour that has been long bandied about concerning the climax of the 2009 specials.

The article on io9 by Charlie Jane Anders also mentions the title of the one of the actors pictured and the character's wardrobe lends credence that the title may be true as well. If so, it opens up other possibilities and confirms what many have been conjuring over the last few years.